6 - Epilogue

With the story over, everyone started talking about returning to Iris Brand. They had imposed on the Forging Guild long enough.

Ichiro (and King Kirihito) said they would be staying a little while longer, but the others took their leave, with Iris at the lead and Felicia and Kirschwasser behind. It had just been a bit of recollection, but it had eaten up quite a lot of time. It was actually rather late in the day, now.

“So now you know,” Iris murmured on the way.

Felicia found herself cocking her head. “Huh?”

“You know, my relationship with the young heir. Right? That’s what you were worried about, wasn’t it?”

Felicia looked back at her blankly, as if to say, “Oh yeah, that’s what started all this.”

Iris felt a wave of exhaustion sweeping over her.

“The story all seems too extraordinary... or maybe too mundane, I can’t tell anymore,” Felicia said. “I guess it was hard on you too, huh, Iris?”

“No kidding,” Iris responded. “It’s like I said when we first met. I find him awful, and while I’m a bit grateful to him, more often he makes me so frustrated I could scream, and I’ll probably beat him to a pulp someday, but I don’t like to badmouth other people’s relatives, so I’ll stop!”

“You’ve badmouthed him a lot already, though...” There was no guile behind Felicia’s words. She was serious.

Of course, Iris was so thankful to the young heir that she couldn’t hate him. But, she reflected, what she felt for him was on a dimension that went beyond like or hate. To put it simply, it was more like the love a person might have for solving difficult entrance exam questions. When she thought about it that way, it was clearly nothing for Felicia to worry about.

To be honest, Felicia seemed to love her “second cousin Itchy” a lot. She wanted to say, “I won’t hold it against you, but please find better taste,” but it was none of her business, really, so she decided to hold off.

“By the way, Lady Felicia, will you be joining Iris Brand?” Kirschwasser asked.

“Hm? Hmm...” Felicia put a hand to her chin and tilted her head thoughtfully. She looked first at Iris, then at Kirschwasser, then at the Iris Brand guild house that towered before them.

The elder Knight’s invitation had been extended purely out of consideration. Felicia had wanted to join the same guild as the young heir, but it would be hard for her to ask to join. Iris Brand was a crafting guild, after all, so there was no objectively valid reason for her to be interested in it. Thus, he must have thought that the kind thing to do would be to ask her.

Iris herself found it a bit awkward, but she didn’t dislike Felicia, so she had no reason to object. But...

“I don’t think so,” was Felicia’s eventual response.

“Oh? A shame.” Kirschwasser raised an eyebrow.

“...Felicia, you’re not refusing for my sake, are you?” Iris asked.

“Huh?! No, of course not!” Felicia exclaimed.

Iris had been wondering if maybe Felicia still had her doubts about her relationship with the young heir, but judging from the girl’s reaction, that wasn’t the case.

There on Glasgobara’s main street, Felicia clenched her hands into fists. “I do want to be in the same guild as Itchy, but at the end of the day, if I’m gonna do one, it should be for something I want to do... that’s what I realized when listening to the story today.”

Iris hadn’t meant it to be an inspiring story, so hearing Felicia say that made her feel a bit self-conscious. “What is it that you want to do in NaroFan, Felicia?”

“It’s already been resolved, actually. So has Itchy’s reason for joining... but he’s still having so much fun, isn’t he?”

“Yeah, that’s true,” Iris agreed. “He is always having fun...”

The group stopped right in front of the Iris Brand guild house.

“Kiryuhito also takes the game really seriously, despite not actually enjoying games very much...” Felicia said. “So I want to find something, too.”

“It’s a game, so I always feel one should enjoy it that way,” Kirschwasser said, arms folded. “But I suppose the freedom of choice in that regard is what makes VRMMOs so popular.”

As a gamer, he represented those who preferred to engage with NaroFan as a game, but Iris and Felicia’s limited social circles hadn’t put them in touch with many players who felt the same way.

And if the Knight was honest with himself, NaroFan was quite lacking as a game. The draw for most of the users was just the novelty of playing a VR game. The actual balance was lacking compared to classic computer games in more mature markets.

He continued, “Indeed, you see players like Iris and the Forging Guild, who set up shop as crafters in Glasgobara, and players who just spend their time relaxing in the Vispiagna Meadows with their friends, rather than grinding levels. Thus, Lady Felicia, it is up to you to find your own form of enjoyment.”

“Hmm...” Felicia folded her arms and thought. “Well, you know... Even if I don’t join the guild, I can still come here to hang out anytime. Right, Mr. Kirsch?”

“Indeed. There will always be tea waiting here for you.”

“Yeah...” Felicia nodded, and Kirschwasser smiled.

He pulled on the thick black door in front of him, which gave out its usual squeak of wood. The Iris Brand lobby appeared before their eyes.

Despite knowing it would be that way, Iris couldn’t help but wince at how empty it was. But then, suddenly, she caught sight of a human silhouette moving around the lobby.

Who could it be? she wondered, straining her eyes. What she finally saw startled her.

It was a woman, dressed elegantly. Her race appeared to be Elf, and her outfit was extremely striking. What she was clad in was not armor, but modern-day apparel of the sort that Iris Brand designed. A one-piece dress with what looked like a sleeve belt, in a tasteful houndstooth check pattern. Engineer boots smartly completed the outfit. Her wavy hair, despite its volume, seemed light and weightless, and was topped by a tasteful red beret.

Her coordination was surely the work of a professional, and the sight of her made Iris feel two inches tall. She couldn’t hold a candle, a match, or even a spark to this woman’s refined taste.

Had there been another person like her in the game? Iris froze. She could tell that Felicia and Kirschwasser behind her were bewildered.

“Is this Iris Brand?” the woman, whose avatar name was Nem, asked with a quiet smile.

“Oh, um, yes!” Iris burst out.

“And are you Iris?”

“Y-Yes!”

Nem gave Iris a piercing look from the tip of her head to the bottoms of her feet, then swept her eyes across the work displayed all over the store. After finishing a full look around, she let out a laugh.

“U-Um...?” Iris asked.

The next words out of Nem’s mouth, Iris wouldn’t forget for the rest of her life:

“It’s nothing.”

“Um...”

Airi Kakitsubata. In her 17 years of life, this was only the second time someone had picked a fight with her for no reason.

Naturally, she didn’t know yet that this second one had also been sparked by the behavior of the young heir, Ichiro Tsuwabuki. It really was utter nonsense.

Meanwhile, in the Forging Guild’s guild house, Edward had finished the work King had asked for and come back out of the workshop. Having its durability maxed out hadn’t changed the graphic of the XAN itself at all, yet somehow, it seemed to sparkle more. King Kirihito thanked him with a slightly satisfied smile, and paid Edward for his work.

“The XAN is one of the legendary weapons, isn’t it?” Ichiro asked, watching them through the corner of his eye.

“Yeah...” King said. “There’s only one of it on the whole server.”

“Just like Amesho’s knife,” Ichiro said.

“Yeah, it’s weird...” King murmured as he gave the XAN a few test swings. Despite its legendary status, it was rather plain-looking. “For weapons of which there are only one each in the game to have such ridiculous stats... You’d think all the game’s users would hate me.”

“Though the fact that you and I can dominate as solo players the way we do says odd things about the game balance to begin with,” Ichiro said.